Wednesday, December 24, 2008

DECEMBER FESTIVALS -2008Christmas - Kwanza - Zartosht Diso - Muharram - YaldaSummary of other Festivals of December in the link at the bottom of this page"If your festival is missing, please share it with me and my world of friends"

Let's learn a little bit about our friends, neighbors and co-workers, and how they commemorate or celebrate their lives. Friendship is an amazing thing, it takes time to know, but when you do, a lot of myths about others disappear - and you find an amazing peace within you for knowing some one from some group, whom you thought otherwise..oh well, you got it. I have compiled, borrowed and added a few notes to learn and share about the following festivals and commemorations. It is not perfect but selected for a lay person to grasp it. For example the write up about Zartosht no-deso is very elementary to Zoroastrians but meaningful to others.

Please join us to reflect upon the Holocaust and Genocides. Let's make room in our hearts for the precious feelings for human helplessness. Kindly mark your calendars for 7:00 - 9:15 PM on Saturday, January 24th, 2009. Details at: www.HolocaustandGenocides.com or try .org

Mike Ghouse is a Speaker, Thinker and a Writer on Pluralism, interfaith, terrorism, peace, interfaith, Islam, Multiculturism and India. He is a frequent guest on talk radio and local television network discussing interfaith, political and civic issues. His comments, news analysis and columns can be found on the Websites and Blogs listed at his personal website www.MikeGhouse.net. Mike is a Dallasite for nearly three decades and Carrollton is his home town. He can be reached at MikeGhouse@gmail.com

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Eid-al-Adha is also known as Hajj or Bakrid (variations listed below) if you wish to greet Muslims on this day you may say Happy Eid or Eid Mubarak. Eid is festivity. At the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, known as Hajj, Muslims throughout the world celebrate the holiday of Eid-al-Adha (Festival of Sacrifice). This year, Eid-al-Adha will be celebrated on Monday, December 8, 2008. It is about remembering and commemorating the trials and triumphs of Prophet Abraham.

A parent would risk his or her life to protect the child. People in love have the passion to value their beloved's life and are willing to get the bullet and save the life, they are willing to rescue her or him from the freezing lake risking their own life, even strangers do that. It is the willingness to put the life of the loved one’ above one’s own life. Every day our Police officers risk their own lives to protect ours, the firemen and women risk their lives to save a child, a pet or an aged person from a fire; and every day our soldiers put their lives at risk to save fellow soldiers and to save our freedom. Eid-al-Adha is a tradition started by Prophet Abraham.

You feel angry knowing that the world stood by silently when the Jews were put on the train to the gas chambers; you feel anger when the Bosnian Muslims children were given chocolates and told not to worry and go right behind and open gunfire and massacre them; you feel anger when the Canadian general sends faxes upon faxes to the United Nations to send help, while the UN and USA did not want to get involved and 800,000 Rwandans were massacred, they were even announcing on their radio how to torture pregnant women to pull out the babies… It was a difficult documentary to watch, but you must watch and face the world; you have to do your share to clean your own slate of conscience.